Although I am not sure that the Introduction to C++ and DirectX Game Development Jump Start is really a 100 level course, but it isn’t a 200 class either, so I would say it’s a 150 level. The nice thing about the training at the Microsoft Virtual Academy is that it doesn’t have click traps or a...

Yeah, I know that I need to be focused on one thing, but I see the linkage between game design and the Internet of Things. For instance at a conference I attended last week, one of the teams had designed a air launched projectile that responded to Tweets. Now this was basically a creative...

Previous: IOT: Pumpkinduino UML, part 2 Next: IOT Pumpkinduino Part 4 So what embedded device should I use in the Pumpkinduino? (The pumpkin is shown to the right, lights not shown because they are weak little things and I used a flash.) An Arduino Nano with a radio? An UNO with a Bluetooth Shield...

Well, I give up for now on trying to explain MVVM to myself, I am just going to read the Free eBook you can find at the site links listed below. I have struggled with the reason to use MVVM for Arduino/Netduino applications, but after viewing the Robert Green videos, it is pretty clear that I need...

If you are in a rapidly evolving small company and the main concern is to make payroll, writing specifications are not at the top your todo list. But building code against specifications are usually what you do, the specifications might be the work order that your customer agrees to pay you for...

Eh? You say. No “Hello World” example in the C specification? Yes, Surf4Fun says you are right! But there is an “Eh?” printf example. In paragraph 5.2.1.1 page 23, Example 2, the C-specification has the following: EXAMPLE 2 The following source line printf("Eh???/n"); becomes...

In a previous post, I talked about the “Hello World” example in the C# standard. The C++ mention of the Hello World is brief and not really a code example, to demonstrate the Function and specifically the parameter-declaration-clause from page 192 (page number at the bottom of the page, not...

Just like in an earlier blog where I showed you how to compile C# without using the VS IDE, you can do the same thing with C++, with a few differences. You might want to take a look at the walkthrough article at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ms235639(v=vs.120).aspx , where it shows...

The Template samples: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpapps/Universal-Windows-app-cb3248c3 To use the templates you must be running Windows 8.1 and upgrade your Visual Studio 2013 to: Now your file new project dialog will look like the following, you will see that there is a new category called...

Not sure, but if I read the article that Bruno Terkady, who is a friend of mine, wrote about using the Azure service bus to work with an Arduino devices doing various things. Now Bruno, who works much harder at things then I do, beat me to the punch. I had heard that he had written an article on...

Well, one thing you can say about Google: They know how to advertise in your face and how to read your inbox. Microsoft is good at neither of those really, Microsoft advertisement just doesn’t seem that pushy to me, but then again I am a stockholder and Technology Evangelist, so I am going to have...

Currently there are about 30 billion sensors in the world that could be considered embedded. This means that those old mercury based thermostats that are still laying around in the environment don’t count. That is 30 billion devices that use some sort of CPU or connect to a CPU in some way...

Turns out in a conversation with one of the Pebble Watch Engineers, they didn’t know that the interface with Windows 8 is similar to the interface they use with the iPhone. So over the next few weeks I am going to explore the possibility of working with the Pebble Watch. Why the Pebble Watch? It...

Your choice, some people love nuget others hate it because it is kind of flaky in weird ways. Good for you. If you want to use the DirectX Tool Kit and don’t want to use Nuget you definitely don’t need to. In fact, with the current flakiness of Nuget, it might be advised. (And yes,...

Well I will be the first to go to be bottom of the page on MSDN and submit a critical comment or a snarky one. If you want to break into DirectX if you are reading this you are likely motivated to do so, then you might be struggling with working with Models, Images or Textures. Hidden inside...

Help UCLA students learn how to build quality games by giving them feedback! Install this Windows 8 app, play it and rate it. Students will be motivated to make appropriate changes.
http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/defense-your-square/54384a61-bb6d-466b-9df4-6b16387326f8

Next Blog: Consuming the WinRT Project in a C++ app Well working with WinRT, this is a mystery to many college students, especially the motivation.to use WinRT. Basically the motivation is to be able to write code using the best possible language and then consume it in a different language or even...

I am teaching a game design class at UCLA that a number of students are suffering through, but they seem to be having fun. I was also assigned an excellent TA to help me out: Konstantinos Sideris, who is absolutely brilliant and seriously a better teacher than I am. Konstantinos took one...

Roberto Sonnino has knocked it out of the park with a release of this Visual Studio 3D Starter Kit for Windows 8.1 Games. Roberto had initially released one of the best Starter kits for Windows 8.0, and now he has upgraded it to Windows 8.1! So get the latest and greatest!! http://aka.ms...

In my previous blog, I showed that implementing a privacy statement was easy. And I questioned the VS templates and examples for not having the Privacy Policy charm, well I won’t question this, now. But at one time, you would not have settings in your app, you were suppose to have the settings...

So you read and read, work through the example code and then you ask yourself this question: Why don’t the template apps include a privacy statement method? Don’t I almost always have to have a privacy statement? And why don’t the example apps have a privacy statement? You might ask...

Had to work hard on that one, stand on a standard, but… Ok, ok, the AppxUpload does stand on a standard. Really.
The standard is the OPC standard and I guess that the Phone file as well as the Windows 8 store files are both based on this, although it is difficult to trace these file formats...

SUP with the /clr and /ZW incompatibility? For that matter why /ZW and not /clr, and if you are a beginner why should you care? Now, C++ is separated from .NET, sort of, if you set the complier tag to /ZW you cannot use /clr which is the setting for the C++ to be able to use .NET. The /ZW...

Sprites are not just a carbonated drink that many love to drink on a hot day, they are also the little objects that make up a game. A circle can be a sprite or Master Chief in Halo could be a sprite. The term sprite seems to be derived from the French word esprit or spirit and the latin spiritus...

I don’t know why I feel compelled to write this blog today, but I have a terrible sore throat from giving two talks yesterday in a noisy room. So it might the two baby aspirins I took, hope the FDA doesn’t require that there be prescriptions for baby aspirins. Anyway, MessageDialogs are pretty...